Well its been a long summer, but the wait is over and the 2010-2011 school year is now beginning! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is John Rathjen and I am the House Pastor at Antioch House this year. I have lived in the house for the past 3 years and I can safely say there’s never been a dull moment. I also enjoy long walks on the beach and great conversation over candlelit dinners. (Okay; that part isn’t really true). For years Antioch has been notorius for not keeping alumni and parents up to date with what’s going in the house. This newsletter is our attempt to reconcile that and we plan on sending one out anywhere from once a month to once a term. The Internet is a quick and easy way to keep everyone informed and so we are going to have this newsletter hooked up to Facebook and Twitter as well as an email list.
The Lord has done so much this summer that I could sit here all night telling you about it. But fortunately for all of you I am someone who really enjoys sleep so you’ll have to trust me when I say that we have been blessed far beyond what we deserve. As most of you know this summer Antioch moved out of our house on 27th st. which we had been in for four years. We now have two houses located much closer to campus. Both houses each have an exciting story attached to them that really shows how much our house has been blessed by the Lord. Our house on 13th St is the first house ever owned by Antioch. In the past Antioch has always rented and I know its an answer to many people’s prayers (including my own) that we now have a place to call our own. The house on 14th St. is also a cool piece of history because it was the house that Antioch first started in. It’s pretty awesome to see everything come full circle and have Antioch moving back to where it all started.
Moving from one house into two this summer seemed like a pretty daunting task. We did not have an industrual kitchen facility in either house so we decided to remodel the kitchen in 13th St. to be able cook for 74 guys. A special thanks goes to our cook Adam and his dad John, without them we would never have been able to pull it off. Throughout the summer it always seemed like there was something more that had to be done; whether it was getting both houses up to fire code or building a bike shed, the Lord was faithful through all of it. Although there are still a lot of details that need to fall into place both houses have guys living in them and are up and running.
The school year got off to a great start with our camping trip. We all packed up our stuff the Monday before classes began and went camping at Butte Creek Ranch out past Silverton. We spent a couple days out there just getting to know each other and enjoying Creation. It was the perfect way to start out the year by getting rid of all the distractions in our lives and just being the body of Christ together. Once we got back from the camping trip we had a few days of hanging out before classes started. Now at the end of our first week of classes we are starting to get settled into both houses and trying to cope with the fact that we have homework. We have already had three Friday Night Worships so far. They have been a great success; we have had a packed house both times. Talking with guys in the house and our small group leaders I really feel a big focus for the house this year is serving the campus and those around us who don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ. God didn’t put us so close to campus on accident. So for the first Monday Night Meeting of the year we walked over to the MU Quad and prayed for Oregon State University and for the thousands of students who go there.
In the Scripture we are told that even though young men can get weary and tired and mess up; if we wait on the Lord He will give us strength. College and being tired are synonymous so I ask all you alumni and parents to pray that the men of Antioch would wait on the Lord. Pray that we would be lifted up with wings like eagles; run and not get tired; walk and not become weary. If we did that, we could do a lot of damage for the Kingdom.
So this is a pretty brief summary of all the things that have been going on with Antioch. I am sure there is a ton that has been left out. So if any of you have questions, feel free to contact the House and we can do our best to answer them. I hope you all are as excited about this year as I am. GO BEAVS!!!!!!!!
-John
P.S. Don’t forget about Alumni Weekend coming up the weekend of October 29th-31st! More details to follow soon…
Thanks for the great update John. Really looking forward to hearing of all the awesome growth and amazing things the Lord will do in and through His Antioch House this year!